Big Brains

What makes a good life? For decades, psychologists have debated whether true fulfillment comes from happiness—a life of comfort and joy—or meaning—a life of purpose and impact. But what if there's a t...

Imagine a future in which Band-Aids talk to your cells, pacemakers are powered by light and your gut microbiome gets a tune-up—all thanks to tiny bioelectric devices. Sounds like sci-fi, right? Think ...

Five years after COVID became a global pandemic, could another health crisis be on our horizon? According to scientists who study diseases, the possibility of a fungal pandemic—the subject of science ...

As we step into 2025, many of us are thinking about how to turn our New Year's resolutions into lasting changes. But what if the secret to success lies not in willpower but in the words we use every d...

We have long heard the claims that a glass of red wine is good for your heart, but it turns out that the research that fueled this wisdom was actually skewed. Some studies made it appear like moderate...

For centuries, death has been seen as a final, inescapable line—a moment when the heart stops and the brain ceases to function. But revolutionary research asks: What if everything we thought we knew a...

This year’s election might have been the most contentious in modern memory. It's not just that politics have changed, but it seems that people have too. You’ve probably heard this phrase: “People aren...

What if we could predict the economy the way we predict the weather? What if governments could run simulations to forecast the effects of new policies—before they happen? And what if the key to all of...

https://haarc.center.uchicago.edu/We used to think aging inevitably led to memory loss, but a small group of people—known as SuperAgers—are defying the odds. These individuals, all over 80, have the m...

On Big Brains, we get to speak to a lot of groundbreaking scholars and experts, but some conversations we walk away knowing we’ve just heard from someone who is really changing the world. We certainly...